1896
Year 1896 (MDCCCXCVI) was a leap year starting on Wednesday (link will display the full calendar) of the Gregorian Calendar (or a leap year starting on Monday of the 12-day slower Julian calendar). Events of 1896 January - March : Roentgen rays.]] X-ray (23 Jan. 1896).]] * January 4 - Utah is admitted as the 45th U.S. state. * January 5 - An Austrian newspaper reports that Wilhelm Röntgen discovered a type of radiation later known as X-rays. * January 12 - H.L. Smith takes the first X-ray photograph. * January 18 - The X-ray machine is exhibited for the first time. * February 1 **The opera La bohème premieres (Turin). **Walter Arnold, of Kent, England, is fined for speeding in excess of the contemporary speed limit of 2 mph. * February 11 - Oscar Wilde's play Salomé premieres in Paris. * March 1 - With the Battle of Adowa, Ethiopia defends its independence from Italy. * March 23 - The New York State Legislature passes the Raines Law, restricting Sunday alcoholic beverage sales to hotels April - June * April 3 - First edition of Italian sports newspaper La Gazzetta dello Sport is published. * April 6 - Opening ceremonies of the 1896 Summer Olympics, the first modern Olympic Games. * May 8 - Cricket: Against Warwickshire, Yorkshire sets a still-standing County Championship record when they accumulate an innings total of 887. * May 18 - The U.S. Supreme Court rules in Plessy v. Ferguson, introducing the "separate but equal" doctrine and upholding segregation. * May 26 - Charles Dow publishes the first edition of the Dow Jones Industrial Average. * May 27 - The costliest and third deadliest tornado in U.S. history levels a mile wide swath of downtown St. Louis, incurring $2.9 billion (1997 USD) in damages, killing more than 255 and injuring over 1,000 people. * June 12 - J.T. Hearne sets a record for the earliest date of taking 100 wickets. It is equalled by Charlie Parker in 1931. * June 15 - Earthquake and tsunami in Sanriku, Japan, kills 27,000. ]] July - September * July 9 - William Jennings Bryan delivers his Cross of gold speech. * July 11 - Wilfrid Laurier becomes Canada's seventh prime minister. * July 27 - A causeway is opened between the islands of Saaremaa and Muhu in Estonia. * August 16 - Skookum Jim Mason, George Carmack and Dawson Charlie discover gold in the Klondike. * August 27 - The shortest war in recorded history, the Anglo-Zanzibar War, starts at 9 in the morning and lasts for 45 minutes of shelling. * September 15 - Crash at Crush train wreck stunt. * September 22 - Queen Victoria surpassed her grandfather King George III as the longest reigning monarch in British history. October - December * October 5 - After a long siege, Brazilian government troops take Canudos in north Brazil, crushing Antonio Conselheiro and his followers. * October 30 - Augusta: Augusta High School corner stone laid marking the end of the Augusta Methodist College. *November - William McKinley defeats William Jennings Bryan in the U.S. presidential election. * November 6 - Hale Johnson runs as vice-presidential candidate for Prohibition Party. * November 30 - A large carcass, later postulated to be the remains of a gigantic octopus, is found washed ashore near St. Augustine. * December 25 - John Philip Sousa composes magnum opus, "Stars and Stripes Forever" on Christmas Day. * December 30 - Jose Rizal, Filipino scholar and poet, executed in the Philippines Undated * Nepalese archaeologists rediscover the great stone pillar of Ashoka at Lumbini, using Fa Xian's records. * Pontifical University of Maynooth is established by decree of the Vatican * France establishes an administrative post in Abengourou, Côte d'Ivoire. * Formation of the New York Telephone Company * The great "Realignment" of the Republican Party of the United States of America * Clarkson University is founded in Potsdam. Births January - June * Lawrence Riley, American playwright and screen writer (d. 1974) * January 2 - Dziga Vertov, Russian filmmaker (d. 1954) * January 4 **Everett Dirksen, American politician (d. 1969) **André Masson, French artist (d. 1987) * January 8 - Arthur Ford, American psychic spiritual medium, clairaudient (d. 1971) * January 12 - Rex Ingram, Irish director and actor (d. 1950) * January 14 - Martin Niemöller, German theologian and pacifist (d. 1984) * January 14 - John Dos Passos, American author (d. 1970) * January 20 - George Burns, American comedian (d. 1996) * January 23 - Charlotte (d. 1985) * February 18 - André Breton, French writer (d. 1966) * February 28 - Philip Showalter Hench, American physician, recipient of the Nobel Prize in Physiology or Medicine (d. 1965) * February 29 - Morarji Desai, Indian politician (d. 1995) * March 1 **Dimitris Mitropoulos, Greek conductor, pianist, and composer (d. 1960) **Moriz Seeler, German writer, poet, film producer, and man of the theatre (d. 1942) * March 20 - Wilfrid Reid "Wop" May, Canadian World War I pilot (d. 1952) * March 29 - Wilhelm Ackermann, German mathematician (d. 1962) * April 15 - Nikolay Nikolayevich Semyonov, Russian chemist, Nobel Prize laureate (d. 1986) * April 30 **Hans List, founder of AVL List (d. 1996) **Gary Davis, American musician (d. 1972) * May 7 - John Dunville, British Army officer (d. 1917) * May 30 - Howard Hawks, American director (d. 1977) * June 7 **Robert S. Mulliken, American chemist, Nobel Prize laureate (d. 1986) **Douglas Campbell, American World War I flying ace (d. 1990) * June 19 - Wallis Simpson, Duchess of Windsor (d. 1986) * June 26 - Henry Allingham, Oldest Surviving soldier of World War I July - December * July 2 - Quirino Cristiani, Argentine animated film director (d. 1984) * July 10 - Maurice Zbriger, Canadian violinist, composer and conductor (d. 1981) * July 13 - Mordecai Ardon, one of Israel's greatest painters (d. 1992) * July 16 - Trygve Lie, first United Nations Secretary General (d. 1968) * August 9 - Jean Piaget, Swiss psychologist (d. 1980) * August 9 - Leonide Massine, Renowned dancer and choreographer, worked with Diaghilev's Ballet Russes and the Ballet Russes de Monte Carlo (d. 1979) * August 15 - Gerty Cori, Austrian-born biochemist, recipient of the Nobel Prize in Physiology or Medicine (d. 1957) * August 15 - Paul Outerbridge, American photographer (d. 1958) * August 18 - Jack Pickford, American actor (d. 1933) * August 30 - Raymond Massey, Canadian-born actor (d. 1983) * September 1 - A.C. Bhaktivedanta Swami Prabhupada, Founder of Hare Krishna movement (d. 1977) * September 24 - F. Scott Fitzgerald, American writer (d. 1940) * October 7 - Paulino Alcántara, Philippine-Spanish soccer player (d. 1964) * October 12 - Eugenio Montale, Italian writer, Nobel Prize laureate (d. 1981) * October 28 - Howard Hanson, American composer (d. 1981) * October 31 - Ethel Waters, American singer and actress (d. 1977) * November 4 - Carlos P. Garcia, president of the Philippines (d. 1971) * November 8 - Bucky Harris, baseball player (d. 1977) * November 10 - Jimmy Dykes, baseball player and manager (d. 1976) * November 13 - Nobusuke Kishi, Prime Minister of Japan (d. 1987) * November 14 - Mamie Eisenhower, First Lady of the United States (d. 1979) * November 16 - Oswald Mosley, leader of the British Union of Fascists (d. 1980) * November 17 - Lev Vygotsky, Russian psychologist (d. 1934) * December 5 - Carl Ferdinand Cori, Austrian-born biochemist, recipient of the Nobel Prize in Physiology or Medicine (d. 1984) * December 6 - Ira Gershwin, American lyricist (d. 1983) * December 14 - Jimmy Doolittle, American World War II general (d. 1993) * December 21 - Leroy Robertson, American composer (d. 1971) * December 27 - Louis Bromfield, American writer (d. 1956) : See also 1896 births. Deaths January - June *January 4 - Joseph Hubert Reinkens, German Old Catholic bishop (b. 1821) *January 8 - Paul Verlaine, French lyric poet (b. 1844) *May 1 - Naser ad-Din Qajar, Shah of Persia, King of Herat (b. 1831) *May 17 - Muhammad Al-Sabah, emir of Kuwait (b. 1831) *May 19 - Archduke Karl Ludwig of Austria, father of Archduke Ferdinand (b. 1833) *May 20 - Clara Schumann, German composer (b. 1819) *May 24 - Federico Luigi, Italian soldier and statesman (b. 1809) July - December * July 1 - Harriet Beecher Stowe, American author (b. 1811) *July 16 - Edmond de Goncourt, co-founder of the Académie Goncourt (born 1822) * July 19 - Abraham H. Cannon, American Mormon apostle (b. 1859) * August 10 - Otto Lilienthal, German aviation pioneer (b. 1848) * August 17 - Bridget Driscoll, an early automobile fatality *August 25 - Hamad bin Thuwaini of Zanzibar, sultan of Zanzibar (b. 1857) * October 11 **Anton Bruckner, Austrian composer (b. 1824) **Edward White Benson, Archbishop of Canterbury (b. 1829) * October 21 - James Henry Greathead, British engineer and inventor (b. 1884) * October 23 - Columbus Delano, American statesman (b. 1809) *November 16 - Josip Šokčević, Croatian viceroy (b. 1811) * December 10 - Alfred Nobel, Swedish inventor of dynamite and creator of the Nobel Prize (b. 1833) * December 30 - José Rizal, national hero of the Philippines (b. 1861) : See also 1896 deaths.